The present inventions are related to systems and methods for determining characteristics of a material. The characteristics may include, but are not limited to, crystallographic and chemical composition characteristics of a material.
Scanning Electron Microscopes (SEM) have been used to investigate characteristics of samples. Use of SEMs to investigate the crystallographic and chemical composition characteristics of a sample suffers from one or more limitations. For example, exposure of a sample to a beam from an SEM can cause instabilities that hamper signal collection. This instability may be the result of beam damage in a beam sensitive sample or due to beam drift. Alternatively, under exposure of a sample to a beam from an SEM can result in insufficient signal to support a desired investigation.
Hence, for at least the aforementioned reasons, there exists a need in the art for advanced systems and methods for investigating samples.